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Monday, March 05, 2012

It was just over a year ago that I first posted about MGM's current plans to restart their RoboCop film franchise, with director Brazilian director Jose Padilha tapped to helm (after an earlier reboot attempt under the guidance of Darren Aronofosky came to naught). Although I was initially quite wary at the prospect, questioning the need to remake a film that I think still holds up remarkably well, my stance started to soften as I got to know the perspective that Padilha was bringing to the project.

That resistance melted away entirely a few weeks ago, when I got a chance to watch the director's much-ballyhooed Elite Squad, finding it completely worthy of all the accolades that have been tossed its way. As a result, I'm now onboard for this in a way I wasn't a year ago when I first posted about this venture. While things have been quiet on the film since last fall, its development did take a big step forward last week with word that Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman has signed on to play the title role (no word if this iteration of the character is still going to be slain, cyborg-ified police officer Alex Murphy).
Kinnaman has come close in the recent past to snagging some very high profile roles such as Thor and Mad Max (which went to Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hardy, respectively), but his biggest stateside credit until now is probably as the male lead in AMC's The Killing (which my friends assure me I need to check out one of these days). Script development is still continuing, and while there's no timetable when we can expect the new Robo, if they're already locking in on-camera talent, that would seem to indicate that they're further along than anyone knew.